Tribal Trials

Unexpected.

Wake up, get dressed, drive to work, Work. Finish work, drive home, change with a shower, drive to theatre. Change theatre from movie setting to theatre setting with stage set up for actors scene, backstage, take three actors home. Drive home, sleep, wake up to alarm and repeat.

My life in a nutshell. I don't know where I fitted eating into that routine or social life or even relaxing- I think eating comes between work and home or the five minute break during theatre. But I wasn't complaining I actually liked my life, it wasn't the greatest life I know. I also knew that it by far wasn't ever going to make me rich or put enough money in my pocket like my father wanted. I however thought it was a simple life filled with simple pleasures and that's all I ever wanted. I'd grown up with my Mum who was a complicated woman to describe, throughout my childhood she was both the greatest and most difficult person I'd ever known. A caring loving woman who taught me what family was about and what the most important things where in life and then later on in my life she changed and became the person who made me suffer and dealt many deep wounds of the mind and soul until one day she simply died.
Of course there is more to it, much more but it is neither here nor there anymore. Just the memories and ramblings of the past that I try to forget a little more of each day to let bygones be bygones and all that. This is why I love my simple life in its simple way. Getting pulled from my dreams by the sound of my alarm going off, I automatically rolled over grabbed it from under my pillow squinting at the brightness as I shut the alarm off the big blue numbers telling me it's 3:45am and it was Monday. Reaching over to flick on the bedside lamp two sets of sleepy eyes greeted me as both annoyingly awake cats glared at me as if I was the worst person on the planet to awaken them at this time. Moving to sit I wrapped first one then the other in a massage hug placing my head on their purring bodies choosing to shut my eyes and listen for a few minutes before reluctantly dragging myself out of bed to the shower before getting dressed and feeding the little buggers on my way out the door to work.

Being Monday it meant I was rostered on for maintenance, so I started work at 4:30 am and finished four hours later. A good shift by far but a hell of a shift to get up for. Listening to the radio I turned it up when the weather report came on, the announcer reading how the cyclone had been upgraded to a cat three and was expect to intensify as it came towards the coast expecting to hit land as a cat five by Thursday or Friday. Onto other news it was predicted that the next election would be taking place earlier this year due to the prime minister being outed by they own party on a vote.

I rolled my eyes and turned the radio off pulling into the shore car park. Working at one of the only two major fast food shores in the town had its perks but it also had its downfalls, the early mornings was one of them.

A perk today it seemed was that at 4:25am the manager and her daughter who by the look of it was the cafe opener for the day rocked up. Hopping out of my car I walked over to join them as the manager opened the door still deep in conversation with her daughter "I doubt it's true child, we won't get cut off because of the cyclone and if we do, the town can handle itself for a few days until the roads open up. It just means everyone will bulk buy and stock up on food"
"Yeah but Mum I heard they said the whole of the tablelands will be cut off and this was said before cyclone Miranda" Kaitlen counted back walking after her mother as I held the door open for them so Barb could get to the office and shut the alarm off- I'd heard it go off once and I never wanted it to go off again. Placing my bag away I signed on to say that I was working and began my routine for the morning; sweeping the patio followed by dragging the chairs out followed by sweeping the dining room. Mopping dining room, cleaning the toilets then putting all the chairs out inside just in time for opening the doors at 6am. From 6-6:30am I normally wiped all tables down and moped outside followed by placing the chairs out then moved back inside to start windows.

Time slipped away as I work through the jobs pausing every now and then to greet a customer or chat lightly to the ones that came in every day like clock work. Soon the hours ticked over and 8:30 rocked up as I finished the last job but all morning I'd heard different rumours from different people but a nagging feeling told me to be careful. Leaving work once I'd finished I decided I'd go to the sports store and get some more arrows for my archery set, I also happened to see a rather nice looking hunting knife so throwing it in I brought ten arrows and the knife bringing my set to a full twenty arrows. The knife would go to my collection bringing it up to fifteen different swords and knives. Feeling happy with myself I went to the shopping centre getting lucky by happening to pull in just as a car was pulling out but I could see already that the shopping centre was packed. As for the supermarket, it was utter disorder. Already sections were picked clean of things, meats, milk, eggs, water. I bypassed it all and went straight for flour, rice, sugar, canned vegetables and soups which was beginning to go bare. Hooking into the aisle that housed all the international foods I stopped by the Indian section and started loading up on the sealed packets of naan bread and papadons, I also tossed in some two minute noddles and cake mixes- if I had too I could survive on cake. The last stop I made was to load up on soap, laundry powder and gardening things; seeds mainly. I knew I was getting weird looks from people and I even saw my step mother so I grabbed some batteries but they were also fast running out.

I didn't talk much with my step-Mum she and I didn't see eye to eye on many things but I asked what she was doing and she warned me to stock up on certain items. I took her advice and pointed to my flour and rice when she asked if I had any bread I replied with a blank expressed "I worked at the bakery, I can make bread if I have too" waving goodbye I moved on paying for my things and loading them into my car stopping into the bakery to buy a huge block of yeast before heading home to the farm where I lived.

The farm was owned by the parents of my housemate/ friend Quel. Her proper name was Racquel but I called her Quel as a nickname. Walking into the house loaded with the heavy flour and rice I wasn't surprised to find that the family was over, the house was built to withstand a cat 6 cyclone so it was the first place everyone came to that were friends of the family. I gladly accepted when help was offered to bring in the shopping. Nods of approval was given when they saw what I'd brought which was all raw ingredients so we could make our own foods. When I brought the arrows out I explained that I'd heard rumours so I'd brought them to go with my other arrows just encase and the knife to go with my collection that we could sharpen if need be because if the unbelievable happened, people would strike the farms first.

Quel agreed with me making a remake of how weeks ago at work we had joked about what would we do if chaos broke out and then went on to explain what we had decided to do. This was step one so it was a step in the right direction. Having everything packed away Quel and I used the time to go out and do our gardening which was apart of our chores, we were in charge of three green houses which was roughly 12 or so garden beds that were over grown so it was our job to heck and cut back all the grass and weeds and prepare the soil for plantation once more. I personally wanted to get most of the long grass heckled down before the rain hit which was gathering in the skies, I could already see the storms coming and knew we had a few hours left before they'd hit us. Once they hit I didn't know how long the rain would last for. All I knew was we had to make sure the house was safe and the cuttings burnt before the winds picked up for the last thing we needed was grass cuttings whipping around.

Like I predicted the rains and the storm hit a few hours later continuing on into the night and the next day, and the day after that and the day after that. The weather reports warned that the tablelands was in for a beating yet during this time I saw settle differences in town. Townsfolk while concerned and preparing for the cyclone to hit they seemed more agitated than normal and that settle difference is what made me start to think that something was going to change: that and the unshakable feeling that this was a very bad storm.

Wednesday morning that unshakable feeling I'd had all week turned to stone cold dread when I was awoken to a call from the store manager telling me not to come into work that all Wilson patch stores were going to be closed for cyclone preparation. This may mean a day off or a few days off until it was deemed safe and the storm over but that also meant I was losing money and I had to pay rent and bills. Disconnecting from the phone I listened as my housemates phone rang a few minutes later and she was told the extract same thing as I had been. I waited until I knew the phone call was over before I walked out of my room and looked at her at the other end of the house as I moved towards her "is it just me or do you also have a bad feeling like maybe we should prepare for more then just the cyclone?" Shrugging her shoulder I expected her answer that I was over reacting but she didn't deny being prepared just that little bit extra. After all you could never be a fool for expecting the unexpected in a situation like this.